Coral Breeze or Water Taxi to Caye Caulker?

[World Gallery]

We are trying to decide if we should go to Caye Caulker on our own using the public water taxi or use Coral Breezes. CB offers an Island Escape tour which is (from their website):

The timetable below represents the tour activities from start to finish. Our daily departures are scheduled to fit within the port time of all ships arriving in Belize.

Start TourMeet Tour Leader40 MinutesScenic boat ride to Caye Caulker.190 MinutesExplore and enjoy Caye Caulker.45 MinutesReturn trip to the Tourism Village.

 

 

The cost is $39 for adults and $29 for children (We have 3 adults and 4 children). The water taxi is $12.50pp round trip. We would save money but do we risk not having enough time at Caye Caulker (because of the water taxi schedule mostly). It seems that we would have a bit longer, not have to walk over to the water taxi area with our children, and not have to worry if we went with Coral Breezes.

Would love some feedback from anyone that has done either.

Also, is it easy to rent the golf carts once in Caye Caulker and do you have to be a certain age to drive one?

[mrstay]

I was going to post this exact question and i checked and you had just posted it. when are you sailing? We are Jan. 31. I called and asked questions of Coral Breezes this AM. They said that the water taxi is about 1/4 mile from the dock. Not a far walk, but you do have to leave the tourist area.

[World Gallery]

I just found out a few minutes ago that Coral Breezes will not allow NCL passengers on any of their Caye Caulker tours because they said that the NCL's tender operations are slow, so I guess this means we have to use the water taxi (Or, are there any other private tour options?). I am still confused though about which one to use, the Caye Caulker or San Pedro one and why? I know that the San Pedro water taxi is closer but I seem to remember that there were reasons to use one over the other but can't remember. Also, about ship time vs. Belize time, that confuses me as well. We can probably be off the ship by 9:00 then the ship leaves at 6:00 (all ship time on April 1st). Can anyone let me know what is the best way to go about this? Thanks so much! Since we are bringing our 5 children, we want to make it as smooth as possible.